Rise Above the Agitation and Forget About the Forgettable Men of History This Holy Week

The illusion of secular salvation has been a phenomenon that I have been talking about for well over forty years now dating back to those long-ago days as a college professor of political science. Even before I came to delve deeply into Holy Mother Church’s authentic teaching on Church-State relations, I knew that there was no salvation in politics, whether of the left or of the right, and I taught about this as one who sought to help my students, many of whom, particularly during times when I taught in the Midwest, were not Catholic, to see themselves and the world around them through the eyes of the true Faith.

Thus, I roll my eyes and heave heavy sighs when this or that political figure of the false opposite of the naturalist “left” or of the naturalist “right” gathers unto himself a cult following. Most of these figures come and go and are consigned to what Pope Leo XIII rightly called “the forgettable men of history.” Their stars burn brightly for a while until their followers realize that their saviors du jour did not solve the problems they thought they were going to solve, although neither they nor their forgettable figures of history ever seem to understand that the remote cause of all human problems is Original Sin, and the proximate causes of those problems are our own Actual Sins.

While it is certainly true that President Donald John Trump is a unique figure in American political history, he is still a naturalist and will one day enter into the pantheon of Pope Leo XIII’s forgettable men of history despite the fact that he is receiving tremendous support from his political base..

As is the case with many fallen men, Donald John Trump basks in the applause and the popularity and, to be honest, the adulation he is enjoying at this time among vast numbers of American citizens save for those who inhabit the precincts of the nihilistic “progressive” wing within the organized crime family of the false opposite of the naturalist left, and they have their own cult figure, the atheistic Jewish socialist and epic Christophobe, Bernard Sanders, a native a Brooklyn who was been a United States Senator from Vermont since January 3, 2007, after spending sixteen years as Vermont’s sole representative in the United States House of Representatives.

The two polar opposites politically and ideologically, at least on most things, were in their respective elements on Saturday evening, April 12, 2025, as Trump was in Miami, aforementioned mixed martial arts event as Sanders was in Coachella, California, to rally the leftists, nihilists, communists, atheists, pro-aborts, globalists, environmentalists, feminists, transhumanists, and the garden variety assortment of perverts, mutants, and others who are suffer from spiritual and mental illnesses of one sort or another:

MIAMI -- President Donald Trump entered to a standing ovation and cheers from a crowd of thousands attending a UFC event on Saturday night, shaking hands with supporters against a backdrop of fans waving his trademark MAGA hats.

Just as Trump entered, he greeted podcast host Joe Rogan, who sat to the right of the president. On the other side of Trump sat Elon Musk, billionaire and chief of the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump, who accented his dark suit with a bright yellow tie, pumped his fist in the air, prompting cheers to strains of “Taking Care of Business.”

He brought along several members of his administration and White House team, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and White House communications aides Steven Cheung and Taylor Budowich. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also joined Trump for UFC 314.

Trump entered the arena with UFC President Dana White, with whom he has been close for decades. He was also accompanied by his granddaughter, Kai Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump Jr.

The Republican president is a longtime UFC fan and sports enthusiast, who has frequently attended major fights. The mixed martial arts fight at Miami’s Kaseya Center was Trump's first UFC visit since he took office in January, and it came weeks after Trump attended the Saudi-sponsored LIV golf tournament at his golf club in Miami.

In a further nod to his sports enthusiasm, Trump has also attended the Super Bowl and Daytona 500 since taking office. He sat cageside at a UFC championship fight in New York City last November, shortly after he won the 2024 election.

us welcomes in various venues, including at something called a “united fight club” match held after Vespers for Palm Sunday had been prayed on Saturday evening, April 12, 2025, a reality about the president is absolutely ignorant. (Trump receives standing ovation as he enters UFC event in Miami.)

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of the country’s leading progressives, delivered an impromptu speech onstage at the Coachella music festival in California on Saturday night in which he implored young people to oppose President Trump’s policies.

Mr. Sanders, who had spoken earlier in the evening at a packed rally in downtown Los Angeles as part of a Western tour, made his comments before introducing the singer-songwriter Clairo.

This country faces some very difficult challenges, and the future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation,” Mr. Sanders, 83, said during his brief address, which received cheers from the crowd. “We need you to stand up to fight for justice, to fight for economic justice, social justice and racial justice.”

When Mr. Sanders mentioned the president of the United States, the audience booed, and the senator said, “I agree.”

Mr. Sanders highlighted economic inequality, universal healthcare, threats to abortion rights and climate change as issues demanding action. He said he had come to Coachella to thank Clairo for her activism, and applauded her for speaking up for women’s rights in Gaza, noting that thousands of women and children have been killed in the war.

Mr. Sanders, an independent, sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, losing to Hillary Clinton. He ran again four years later and was the last major Democratic primary rival to Joseph R. Biden Jr., who won the 2020 presidential election.

The senator’s appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is consistent with his popularity among young progressives who admire him as an uncompromising and outspoken firebrand. (Bernie Sanders Attacks Trump’s Policies During Surprise Coachella Appearance.)

What stands out to me from each of their pagan festivals is that most of those attending them were as clueless about the sacredness of Palm Sunday as the two men who were applauded by their respective constituencies. It is not an exaggeration to state that, despite their differences on many issues, neither Donald John Trump, despite his nominal brand of a generic “Christianity" and despite a superb  message about Holy Week issued in his name and that of his pro-abortion wife, Melania Knauss Trump, that must have been written by a Catholic stafferand approved by the president prior to being issued, nor Bernard Sanders, because of his atheism of seething hatred of Christianity (see Bernie Sanders Makes America Safer for Atheism), gave a single thought on Saturday evening, April 12, 2025, to the reflection about Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem as provided by Father Maurice Meschler, S.J., in Volume 2 of The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I will make interjections at various points:

Our Saviour Manifests His Power and Glory in this Triumphal Entry

Our Saviour is determined to show His power to-day, and for once to take His place as Lord and Master. This power and glory are especially shown in three points.

First, in the outward display of pomp and power. He has started on the road to Jerusalem with His disciples. But to-day He will not go on foot, as His poverty usually obliges Him to do. As soon as He is a little way from Bethania, He commands two of his disciples to go ahead as far as Bethphage and bring Him an ass that was tied up there with her foal. If the owner made any objection, they were to say: The Lord has need of them.” This was done. In place of a horse-cloth and saddle the disciples threw their garments over the animals’ backs, and Jesus mounted the foal and had the ass led riderless by His side. Probably the disciples walked in procession with Jesus in their midst, and the people in the vicinity followed. In their enthusiasm they spread their garments as a carpet on the road (an act always considered a great mark of devotion and veneration, and also cut boughs from the trees and strewed them in the way. As they all descended the Mount of Olives together, the disciples and the people in front and in the rear broke out with one accord into the enthusiastic cry. Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed be the king. That come with the name of the Lord, and blessed be the Kingdom of our Father David that cometh. Peace in the heaven and glory on high. As soon as the pilgrims encamped around Jerusalem, saw the procession and heard the song of praise, they caught up. The enthusiasm went in crowds to meet our Lord's broke boughs from the palm trees and joined in the cry Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.  When a procession of almost interminable length approached the city in a state of indescribable enthusiasm, and entered, as it seems, not by the nearest the Golden Gate, but by some other, so as to traverse the whole city. This created great excitement and everyone began to ask who it was that was entering in this way. They were told and replied that it was Jesus the prophet from Nazareth to Galilee. Our Lord now under the temple and healed blind and lame people, whilst children with those in the service of the temple or others is not recorded, broke out afresh into the cry Hosanna to the Son of David. Then if you would all things round about the temple that is the Pilgrim come to the feast, but it's the sun surveying his father's house.

Even as regards the exterior, his entry was a glorious one but it acquires still greater importance when we come to consider its signification. It was not a mere political demonstration, but a religious one. It was a real pilgrimage, a procession, a solemn recognition of the miracles of Jesus, His proclamation is King and Messiah, and the solemn act by which he took possession of the city and temple. This was especially indicated by the carrying and waving palms, olive and myrtle boughs, and by the singing of the solemn responses, Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. These songs and ceremonies were part of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was entirely a Masonic feast, and they expressed the formal proclamation and greeting. Of the longed four heir of David’s throne. For this reason, the Evangelists tell us the disciples broke into loud praise of God for all the miracles they had seen, and that the people gave this testimony because they heard that he had brought the miracle of the raising of Lazarus. This triumphal procession was the literal fulfillment of the great prophecy of Zacharias, that the Messias would come to Sion poor and riding on an ass and upon the cold the foal of an ass. This beast of burden had not carried anyone before, because it was to do a sacred service. The Holy Fathers also regard this circumstance as indicative of the rise of the Messias over the Gentile world. The foal that carries Him in the symbol of heathendom, whilst the old ass represents Judaism. Our holy Church says on Palm Sunday that these palms and olives also signified the victory of the Redeemer over the prince of death. The great significance of this procession was not to dawn upon the Apostles until later.

Lastly, the glory of this triumph is enhanced by the cause which brought it about. It is no other than the Saviour Himself, His Person, and the power of His grace and Godhead that have been so gloriously manifested in His miraculous works. He comes without an army, without treasures, without armour, or war-horse. But with Him comes the Holy Ghost with His inspirations of grace, and to-day His sway is undisputed. The enthusiasm passes from the disciples to the people, and no one interferes. Even Pilate and his double garrison, usually so distrustful of every public demonstration on the Feast of the Pasch, do not stir. The Pharisees cannot prevent it. In vain do they come up to our Saviour at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and, annoyed at the cries of Hosanna demand of Him to forbid His disciples to continue; in vain do the High Priests and the scribes rebuke Him for permitting the unseemly cries of the children in the Temple; He merely replies: “If these (the disciples and the children) shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out,” and reminds them of the prophecy: “Out of the mouths of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.” They themselves are forced to acknowledge that nothing is of any use, “the whole world is gone after Him.” This triumphal procession intimidated His enemies and made them desist from their plan of seizing Jesus during the days of the feast. It was certainly a glorious dDnaay. Never yet had High Priest or king had such a triumph and the glory of the day was entirely our Lord’s own work.

An Interjection:

Mindful of the White House statement about Holy Week, I want to reiterate my point that I do not believe Donald John Trump was preparing for Palm Sunday when he watched a Roman bread-and-circus like spectacle after Holy Week had begun. I am not condemning him. Of course not. However, I am merely pointing out that no one who is really aware of the sarcredness of Holy Week would permit himself to have any interest in spectacles of unnecessary physical violence. There is a disconnect between the president's actions and statements issued in his name, especially when one considers that he also issued a Happy Passover video on Palm Sunday and had issued a Presidential Message on Ramadan on March 3, 2025. Just a little something for everyone as he spent Palm Sunday on the golf course after going to the mixed martial arts event the night before.

A commenter on Fox News wrote the folloing about this disconnect:

In actuality, Trump spent Palm Sunday weekend in Florida, golfing, paling around with Elon Musk, enjoying his Mar-a-Lago mansion, and attending a UFC event [on Saturday night]. No church attendance was listed on his public schedule. Trump’s White House recycled a nearly 5-year-old image of himself at a church, a visit that occurred outside of Holy Week and in a different city than where he was for Palm Sunday. (President Donald Trump declares 'HAPPY EASTER!' in Palm Sunday post.)  

Sure, President Trump does not know how to keep Holy Week holy and that is precisely my point. We live in a world that not only forgotten about Christ the King and His true Church but one in which even many Catholics have forgotten about how to keep Holy Week truly holy.

Here is a piece of entirely unsolicited advice, therefore: FORGET ABOUT THE FORGETTABLE MEN DURING THIS WEEK OF WEEKS.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO POLITICS, CURRENT EVENTS, SPORTS, “ENTERTAINMENT,” OR OTHER DISTRACTIONS.

WITHDRAW FROM THE WORLD AND ITS FALSE ATTRACTIONS FOR ONE WEEK. JUST ONE WEEK, THE WEEK DURING WHICH OUR SALVATION WAS WROUGHT FOR US BY OUR BLESSED LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST DURING HIS FEARFUL PASSION AND DEATH ON THE WOOD OF THE HOLY CROSS.

Welcome Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ every day at Holy Mass if one is privileged to be near a true offering of the ineffable Sacrifice of the Cross or, if not, by means of a fervent spiritual communion.

Meditate upon the Gospel accounts of Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

Put aside the naysayers in the traditional world and meditate upon The Mystical City of God, which was defended by Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., praised by Popes Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius XI, and promoted by Father Solanus Casey, O.F.M., Cap., Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D., and numerous cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests. The events of Our Lord’s Passion Death, and Resurrection are recounted in Chapters VI through XXVI in Book 6, The Transfixion, which can be found at: The Transfixion. My own study of Dom Prosper Gueranger’s defense of The Mystical City of God can be found at: A Study of Dom Prosper Gueranger's Detailed Defense of The Mystical City of God, part one, and A Study of Dom Prosper Gueranger's Detailed Defense of The Mystical City of God, part two.

We know that we are as fickle as the crowd who welcomed Our Lord with enthusiasm on Palm Sunday before choosing Barabbas as they denounced Him on Good Friday just five days later.

We must make reparation for our own sins by offering up the sufferings of the moment to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Forget about forgettable men and remember only the depth of the love contained within the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus for us despite our sins, despite our fickleness, despite our worldliness and self-absorption, despite our lukewarmness and lack of genuine meditation on First and Last Things.

Forget about the forgettable men and remember that the Queen of Martyrs, she who is our Mediatrix, Co-Redemptrix, and Advocate, suffered in perfect compassion with her Divine Son as He suffered and died for our sakes and that she was given to us by Him to be our Mother, Our Blessed Mother in every circumstance of our lives.

Returning now to Father Meschler’s Palm Sunday reflection:

WHY OUR SAVIOUR CELEBRATES THIS TRIUMPH

The reasons why our Saviour celebrates this triumph are as follows.

First, it had been prophesied that the Messias would take possession of the city and the Temple in this manner. Indeed, Jerusalem and its Temple are always the scene of Messianic revelations, and for this reason, all the Evangelists give such a detailed and full account of this incident.

Second, our Saviour wished to deprive His enemies of their last pretext for unbelief. They were always expecting a Messias to come with power and glory, and could not imagine Him otherwise. Now they had Him thus. He also wished to frighten them from carrying out their murderous plans. He had told them Himself that they would not see Him in Jerusalem until people cried to Him: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! This triumphal entry was a great grace for them, and their last visitation; in very truth a blessed day—their day, as our Saviour Himself says.

Another Interjection:

As we read in the Last Gospel after the conclusion of almost every true offering of Holy Mass:

He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him to them He gave power to become sons of God, to them that believe in His Name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us: and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 11-14.)

How many baptized Catholics are there today who run after forgettable men while refusing to receive their Divine Redeemer deep into their hearts and souls and are every ready to mock or to ignore Him so as to fit in with the world?

How many times have we been so foolish as to make a mockery of Holy Week?

The words of Father Meschler above apply to us in all too many instances just as much as they applied to the disbelieving Jews of Our Lord’s time?

Returning to Father Meschler’s reflection on Palm Sunday:

Thirdly, He intended to prove that His future Passion and Death was voluntary and of His own free choice. A man who held such sway over the minds of the people could also hold His own against his enemies. This entry was His answer to the question whether He would appear at the feast and to the order to give information of His whereabouts, that He might be arrested, and also to their determination to kill Him. The tables were turned, and to-day their lives were in His hands.

Lastly, our Saviour wished to add to the disgrace of His death by the contrast with the glory of this triumph, and therefore He chose for the scene of His Passion Jerusalem, and for the time the Paschal Feast, thus bringing His shameful death into close proximity—as regards both time and place—to the splendour of this triumphal procession. In the same city, and by the same people who were now the witnesses and instruments of His exaltation, it was His will to suffer and die. The great and wonderful spirit of Jesus makes shame His glory and glory His shame. He takes possession of the city, that He may be crucified in it and by its people.

HOW OUR SAVIOUR CELEBRATES THIS TRIUMPH

Outwardly our Saviour celebrates this triumph with great modesty, humility, and amiability. He comes, as had been prophesied of Him, without any vain, warlike pomp, simple, gentle, riding upon an ass; He comes as beseems His character of Prince of Peace and King of God’s priestly people, who are not to put their trust in horses, and chariots, but in the Name of God; He comes as all the prophets and priests and kings of good times had come; He comes as Priest, to found His kingdom of peace by acts of peace and not of war, by humility, meekness, and poverty. Not even the animal He rides nor the outward equipment of the procession is His own property. But what He wills is given Him; the love His subjects provides Him with everything.

A Third Interjection:

Yes, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ celebrated His triumphal entry into Jerusalem with “great modesty, humility, and amiability” and without “any vain, warlike pomp.”

This is most unlike the pump-fisting Donald John Trump or the arrogant defiance of the atheist Bernard Sanders.

This even most unlike many of us in times of some kind of personal triumph as our pride and disordered self-love may have caused us to forget Who is the source of everything good we might accomplish in this passing, mortal vale of tears and that no “accomplishment” in this life matters at all if we fail to win Heaven by cooperating with graces that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ won for us this Holy Week and that flow into our souls through the loving hands of His Most Blessed Mother as the Mediatrix of All Graces.

We must pray humbly on our knees in thanksgiving for all that Our Lord endured to save us from the tyranny of satan and eternal death as we thanks to Our Lady for her consenting to suffer everything in union with Him for love of Him and of us, her children by adoption to whom she gave birth spiritually as she suffered in noble silence at the foot of her Divine Son’s Holy Cross:

To the final passages from Father Maurice Meschler’s reflections on Palm Sunday:

Interiorly also our Saviour celebrates this triumph very humbly. He knows the nothingness of all temporal greatness and glory. Over these very palms that are now trampled under foot by the ass He rides, He will soon be dragged from one judge to another, and finally to the place of His crucifixion. The same people who now cry “Hosanna” will shout a few days later: “Away with Him! Crucify Him!” He saw quite plainly, too, how everything proceeded from Himself and His grace, and therefore He did not take pride in the homage and honour paid to Him. –Further, He celebrated His triumph with great compassion for the unhappy city and its inhabitants so that He began to weep, lamenting their blindness and the punishment that was soon to overtake them. He described this punishment in brief but striking words. From the Mount of Olives He could see the city and the Temple glittering in all their glory in the rays of the morning sun, and in spirit He saw vividly how they would be blackened, broken, and levelled to the ground; He saw the pretty, fresh-cheeked children who now ran singing by His side, lying bleeding, charred and mutilated corpses in the streets of the stormed city; He saw the magnificent sanctuary reduced by flames to a heap of debris. From the very place where He now was, Titus led the siege and sent His legions to storm the city. Our Lord saw all this, and His grief and compassion forced tears and sighs from Him even in the midst of the honours and joys of this triumphal procession. –Lastly, He celebrated His triumph with a keen anguish, caused by the thought of His approaching Passion and Death. Everything reminded Him of it: the places by which the procession passed—Gethsemane, Cedron, the streets and the palaces where His enemies lurked, nurturing their hate; the participators in His triumph—the people, the disciples, and especially Judas, who was walking beside Him. The procession was a fuel to the fire of the hatred of many, and the signs of this were not lacking, e.g., the equivocal question of the citizens, as to who was entering thus, and the open demand of the Pharisees that our Lord should bid the exulting disciples and children be silent. It was really for Him more like a funeral procession than a triumph. He suffers Himself to be adorned and led to the sacrifice. It was the very day upon which it was customary to take the Paschal lamb from the flock and bring it into the house, decked out with flowers and ribbons.

Such was the day of His entry into Jerusalem. It is a grand reflection of the Passion, life, and destiny of the God-Man. Glory and death, honour and shame, wealth and poverty, joy and an abyss of anguish interwoven in wondrous contrasts and sharp lines; to some He is light and salvation, to others blindness and perdition. The whole forms a brilliant and glorious introduction to the Passion. Late in the evening, Our Lord quitted the Temple with the Apostles, and went out to Bethania again. (Father Maurice Meschler, S.J., The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Son of God, in Meditations, Volume II, Freiburg Im Breisgau 1928 Herder & Co., Publishers to the Holy Apostolic See, pp. 194-200.)

May we grieve Our Lord and Our Lady no more during this Holy Week, 2025.

May we make some effort, however modest, to truly grieve for our sins and to attend to the solemn ceremonies, if only at a remote distance from where they are being held, with love, diligence, fervor, and attention of mind, heart, body and soul as continue to meditate upon the Sorrowful Mysteries of Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary and make the Way of the Cross an integral of each day of this Week of Weeks.

Dom Prosper Gueranger’s reflection for Monday of Holy Week complements Father Meschler’s reflection for Palm Sunday:

This morning, also, Jesus goes with his disciples to Jerusalem. He is fasting, for the Gospel tells us, that He was hungry. (Matthew 21:18) He approaches a fig-tree, which is by the way- side; bat finds nothing on it, save leaves only. Jesus, wishing to give us an instruction, curses the fig-tree, which immediately withers away. He would hereby teach us what they are to expect, who have nothing but good desires, and never produce in themselves the fruit of a real conversion. Nor is the allusion to Jerusalem less evident. This city is zealous for the exterior of divine worship; but her heart is hard and obstinate, and she is plotting, at this very hour, the death of the Son of God.

The greater portion of the day is spent in the Temple, where Jesus holds long conversations with the chief priests and ancients of the people. His language to them is stronger than ever, and triumphs over all their captious questions. It is principally in the Gospel of St. Matthew, (Matthew 21, 22, & 23) that we shall find these answers of our Redeemer, which so energetically accuse the Jews of their sin of rejecting the Messias, and so plainly foretell the punishment their sin is to bring after it.

At length, Jesus leaves the Temple, and takes the road that leads to Bethania. Having come as far as Mount Olivet, which commands a view of Jerusalem, He sits down, and rests awhile. The disciples make this an opportunity for asking Him, how soon the chastisements He has been speaking of in the temple will come upon the city. His answer comprises two events: the destruction of Jerusalem, and the final destruction of the world. He thus teaches them that the first is a figure of the second. The time when each is to happen, is to be when the measure of iniquity is filled up. But, with regard to the chastisement that is to befall Jerusalem, He gives this more definite answer: “Amen I say to you: this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.” (Matthew 24:34) History tells us how this prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled: forty years had scarcely elapsed after His Ascension, when the Roman army encamped on this very place where He is now speaking to His Disciples, and laid siege to the ungrateful and wicked City. After giving a prophetic description of that Last Judgment, which is to rectify all the unjust judgments of men, He leaves Mount Olivet, returns to Bethania, and consoles the anxious heart of His most holy Mother.

The Station, at Rome, is in the Church of Saint Praxedes. It was in this Church, that Pope Paschal II, in the 9th century, placed 2,300 bodies of holy Martyrs, which he had ordered to be taken out of the catacombs. The pillar, to which our Savior was tied during his scourging, is also here. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Monday of Holy Week.)

The Jews of Our Lord’s time refused His mercy and suffered for the persistence in doing so after they had been given thirty-seven years to respond to the preaching of the Apostles. Thirty-seven years of persistence in obstinate pride and arrogance, which impelled them to persecute the Apostles and other Catholics after Pentecost Sunday until Our Lord used the pagan Romans to punish their infidelity.

How is it with us?

Do we refuse the mercy of the Divine Redeemer, Christ the King?

How is it with the temple of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, that is the animating principle of the human body, our immortal soul?

Do we fear the destruction we deserve for our own refusal to let Our Lord build up His temple in our bodies and souls by our half-heartedness, our fear of losing human respect by not defending Him and His Holy Church when opportunities arise for us to do so, and by our disordered attention to the things of the world?

With Our Lady’s help, of course, and only with her help we can make this Holy Week the best one of lives as we try to welcome Our Lord with gratitude, console Him in His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and to stand next to His Blessed Mother at the foot of the Cross, now and every day of our lives.

May Our Lady help to make this so for us this week as not only forget about forgettable men, for whom we must pray every day, of course, but remember to put the God-Man and His Redemptive Act first, last, and always in everything we do until He calls us before the Divine Tribunal to make an accounting of our stewardship of the gifts He has given us.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.   

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Justin Martyr, pray for us.

Saints Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus, pray for us.